Three new driverless cars hitting UK roads: A Range Rover Evoque, Ford Fusion and Mondeo unveiled by Oxbotica and Transport for London group Driven September 5, 2017 Three fresh prototypes for driverless cars have been unveiled by a top group with ambitious goals of getting the vehicles onto Britain’s roads by 2019. A self-driving Range Rover Evoque and two Ford – a Fusion and a Mondeo – will be part of a fleet of six vehicles that will form part of trials [...]
The City must prepare for an £135bn per year Brexit boost August 21, 2017 IN 1553, London merchants funded a naval expedition to China via the North East passage. It got trapped in the ice in Russia’s White Sea and was forced to travel overland to Moscow where Ivan the Terrible granted it exclusive trading rights. The group returned to London to set up the Muscovy Company. This became [...]
FTSE 100 history: how the index has changed over 33 years July 3, 2017 The FTSE 100 index has just seen one of its quarterly changes with security firm G4S and real estate investment trust Segro promoted to the top 100. Although perhaps small in themselves, these regular events have changed the face of the UK’s leading index since it was formed in 1984. For the many investors whose [...]
Queen’s speech: Here’s the full text, featuring a flurry of Brexit bills June 21, 2017 The much-anticipated Queen's speech for 2017 has been delivered, outlining Theresa May's plans and her pledge to win "the trust and confidence" of the British people. Below is the full text of the speech. The Queen's speech 2017 My Lords and Members of the House of Commons. My government’s priority is to secure the best [...]
Queen’s speech 2017: Here’s the full text of Theresa May’s plan covering Brexit, HS2 but no mention of US President Donald Trump visit June 21, 2017 The much anticipated Queen’s speech for 2017 has been delivered, outlining Theresa May’s plans and her pledge to win “the trust and confidence” of the British people. Read more: Live: The Queen’s speech The Queen’s speech: The full text My Lords and Members of the House of Commons. My government’s priority is to secure the [...]
Why crowd-based capitalism has changed the economy June 14, 2017 Technological advances are reshaping our jobs and the nature of work. How will the global economic system evolve? What will the future of work look like? As an observer of digital disruption, Arun Sundararajan, author of The Sharing Economy and Professor of Information, Operations and Management Sciences at the NYU Stern School of Business, noticed [...]
KKR drives off with Q-Park after £2.6bn offer puts the firm in exclusive talks, beating an offer from Macquarie May 31, 2017 Car parks are more valuable than they look, if KKR’s latest deal is anything to go by. The behemoth investor is set to acquire Q-Park, a network of multi-storey car parks operating across northern Europe, after making a near-€3bn (£2.62bn) offer. Netherlands-based Q-Park, which owns more than 70 UK car parks, is currently owned by [...]
Aviva just backed insurance focused fintech startup Neos and will probably acquire one soon, says CEO Mark Wilson May 25, 2017 Aviva is splashing cash on a startup focusing on insurance for connected homes in the latest signal of the insurers intent when it comes to technology – and it may even stretch to buying a small tech firm in future, it has revealed. The venture arm of Aviva has led a £5m series A funding [...]
Insurer Ageas has started processing claims using artificial intelligence from London startup Tractable May 18, 2017 One of the biggest car insurers in the UK has started automating the way it's processing claims with the help of artificial intelligence. Ageas will start using technology which can asses images of vehicle damage, and even flag potential fraudulent claims, to make the process more efficient by performing assessments within seconds. Read more: How [...]
Brunch in Dubai is luxurious in the extreme. Just be careful not to eat the golden macarons – they’re purely decorative… May 12, 2017 Visiting a destination for the first time is like being on a first date. You want to go to a nice restaurant, you’d like him to be charming, but arriving with six dozen roses and a list of potential baby names is probably overkill. Dubai is like the most try-hard of bunny boiler boyfriends, the [...]